An Italian confectionery giant has won a three-year battle against a Chinese firm producing copies of its Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

The praline-filled sweets are famous for a TV advert that featured them being served up at diplomatic receptions, with an attractive guest telling her host: "Ambassador, with these Ferrero Rocher you are really spoiling us."

However, since the early Eighties a Chinese firm, Montresor, has been selling imitations that are identically packaged and often sold alongside the gold paper-wrapped originals.

Ferrero, based in Turin, began legal action against Montresor three years ago, and the case has now ended in Beijing with the Chinese Supreme Court ordering the firm to stop producing its Tresor Dore chocolates and pay "symbolic" damages of 50,000 (£40,000).

Giovanni Ferrero, the firm's president who recently took over from former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi as Italy's richest man, said: "This ruling secures the rights of our brand of gold-wrapped pralines."